St. Augustine defense smothers Seabreeze in preseason classic

Thursday

The St. Augustine football team is off to a familiar start on both sides of the ball.

Now, they're on the clock to get one of those units fixed and ready to go for the most difficult season opener in program history.

The Yellow Jackets used brute force on defense to top Daytona Beach Seabreeze 17-6 in Wednesday's preseason classic. St. Augustine used six sacks and a pair of fumble recoveries from its varsity starters to give the Sandcrabs fits. The Yellow Jackets needed that dominant showing to offset a so-so performance from an offensive unit still trying to find its footing with a handful of new starters. Historically slow starters on offense, the Yellow Jackets were particularly ragged in the running game. St. Augustine had six turnovers, with five of those coming on the Seabreeze side of the field.

Penalties also stung. Varsity players were flagged eight times in three quarters of work.

St. Augustine coach Joey Wiles was none too happy about those mistakes, especially with a six-hour bus ride on Sept. 3 to face Georgia power, North Gwinnett looming.

"The most disappointing thing is the missed tackles and putting the ball on the ground," Wiles said. "... Seabreeze is good, that's why we wanted to play them. We've got a lot to work on, but we've got a chance to be a good football team."

Linebacker James Rentz said that St. Augustine would take this performance and learn from it, and quickly.

"We know what we need to do," he said. "We'll build off this, the good things we did and the bad things we did."

The game was virtually decided on the opening play of the second quarter. Trailing 7-0 at the St. Augustine 12, Seabreeze quarterback Trenton Norvell flipped a swing pass to Trevaugh Rodriguez, who was hemmed in on the left side of the field by a handful of St. Augustine tacklers. Rodriguez left one Yellow Jackets defender frozen, whipped around a couple more jerseys and took an angle to the end zone. St. Augustine collapsed the pocket on the point-after try and Rayon Calloway smothered the kick. The Yellow Jackets took that 7-6 lead and held it until backup players entered the game in the fourth.

Sandwiched in between was a midseason defensive performance from the Yellow Jackets.

St. Augustine didn't allow Norvell, a 6-foot-5 senior, many big plays down the field. His longest completion was a dump pass under major pressure that Rodriguez took 31 yards down the sideline. For the most part, everything the Yellow Jackets allowed came on intermediate underneath routes. And with a vicious front seven changing the pocket just about every down, Norvell never seemed to get comfortable. He finished 8 of 13 passing for 80 yards. St. Augustine held Seabreeze to 45 yards rushing on 26 carries.

"The backs did good at finding the creases they did," said Seabreeze coach Marc Beach, whose trip to St. Augustine was the Sandcrabs' first since a 49-21 loss to the Yellow Jackets in the Class 3A regional final in 2002. "We needed to face a good team (entering the season). I don't know if there'll be a better front seven than (St. Augustine) that we face all year."

The Yellow Jackets kept that defensive intensity all night. Timothy Verdell had a sensational game, recording 3.5 sacks. Matt Morabito, Blake Moore and James Rentz also brought down Norvell.

"We've got to work on the little things like Coach Wiles said," Verdell said. "Basically, what we've been working on is getting in better condition."

Wiles noticed the conditioning issue, too, citing the missed tackles as a direct result of that.

"The conditioning issue, that's completely on me as a coach," he said.

The Yellow Jackets showed flickers of promise, especially early.

New quarterback Sandon Mims had a strong start, getting into a rhythm with receiver Phillip Worthington. Mims found Worthington for a 36-yard gain on the Yellow Jackets' first snap. His next completion to Te-Sean Glass went for 14 yards down to the 1. Fullback Dominique Hamilton went in untouched two plays later for a 7-0 lead. Mims found Worthington again on the following drive for a 24-yard pickup on third-and-7. But Hamilton fumbled fighting for yardage on the ensuing play, and St. Augustine's offense went flat after that.

On the Yellow Jackets' next three possessions, they had no net yards and punted three times. The Yellow Jackets fumbled on their three drives in the third quarter, losing two of those. Mims finished 11 of 19 for 127 yards and an interception.

On the ground, Levent Sands led the Yellow Jackets with 54 yards on six carries. Worthington had a game-high 61 yards receiving on three catches. Backup Lashaud Lockwood had a 4-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, and kicker Drew Clukey added a 34-yard field goal for the final margin.

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